Leveraging Founder-Market Fit to Win Over Risk-Averse Buyers

What happens when a team of legal veterans decides to rebuild the dispute resolution process from the ground up? 

To find out, I interviewed Rich Lee, co-founder and CEO of New Era ADR, a platform designed to resolve legal disputes faster, at lower cost, and with less friction for both companies and individuals. 

We talked about building a team that had enough credibility to sell into one of the most risk-averse industries, how they approached trust-building with both customers and investors, and how they're scaling a capital-efficient business in a category that’s been largely unchanged for decades.

Thanks for listening!

– Walter.

(2:59) “ I'm an early adopter of, you know, anything.”

(10:03) “ The core problem: why does it cost so damn much to resolve a legal dispute in this country?”

(13:05) How Rich and his co-founders divided roles and responsibilities

(17:15) Hurdle #1: “ Challenging the underlying assumption that litigation and a legal dispute doesn't have to be two-plus years.”

(22:32) In the early days, New Era ADR developed multiple personas to overcome customer objections

(25:50) “ Fortunately, we didn't have to do a lot of POCs.”

(29:40) “ Our market's comically big.”

(30:03) Finding your SAM and SOM when the TAM is $350 billion

(32:22) Which came first: the pitch deck, or the revenue model?

(35:50)  One question Rich would have to ask the CEO if he were interviewing for a role with an early-stage startup.

• Rich Lee


• New Era ADR


• The Future of ADR? New Era Bags $6.3m While Still at Seed Stage, Artificial Lawyer, 3/16/2022

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